Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	dead_a	resurrection_n	soul_n	9,107	5	5.5918	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42023	Two sermons the first preacht at Steeple-Aston in Oxfordshire at the funerall of Mr. Francis Croke of that place Aug. 2, 1672, the other at the funerall of Alexander Croke of Studley, Esq., buryed at Chilton in Buckinghamshire Octob. 24, 1672 / by Daniel Greenwood ...	Greenwood, Daniel, 1627 or 8-1679.	1680 (1680)	Wing G1865; ESTC R7515	25,935	40

this is the portion of the heirs of salvation and of them only Nor do I meane that good Men so soone as they Dye are possest of all the Happiness that ever they shall be no the utmost consummation of their Bliss both in Body and Soul is reserved to the generall Resurrection But I meane that the Soules of good Men are no sooner separated from the Body by naturall Death but they are presented before Christ and admitted to the beginnings of glory and happiness The Apostle makes nothing to intervene between these two being absent from the Body and present with the Lord. No third region wherein to lodge and purge departed Soules before they come to the presence of their Redeemer No middle State betwixt the Death of the Godly and their Reception into the Armes of Christ and the mansions that he hath prepared for them This grounded the Prayer of Stephen when he was about to Dye Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Act 7. 59. and the promise of our Saviour to the penitent Thiefe Lu 23. 43. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus Lu 16. the poor Man is immediately carryed into Abrahams Bosome where he enjoys his good things as the other is Tormented and saith St. John Revel 14. 13. I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the moment of their Death and dissolution they rest from their labours c. The sense and substance of all which places I can not give you better then in the very words of our Church in her office for the Burial of the Dead viz. The soules of the faithful being delivered from the Burden of the flesh are with Christ in joy and felicity 4. Proposition Holy Men have attaind may attaine to this high and excellent pitch to be willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. The Apostle speakes here of more then his single selfe We in the plural Number and he sayes it not once and in a passion but deliberately once and againe Phil 1. 23 Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is farre better Observe here 1. The desireable estate of a Christian namely to be with Christ together with the Apostles willingnesse to it I desire it I long for it And the sooner the better 2. The way to come to this happy State that 's by departing hence by putting off this Earthly Tabernacle by being absent from the Body 3. The judgment he passeth upon a comparison of the two estates of Life and Death this later is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much very much farre and exceeding better and more desirable So that he is not onely willing to submit to the common necessity of dying but is desirous to Dye Not willing only to depart hereafter but to weigh anchor and away presently He stood indifferent to any kind of Death Violent or natural so he might Dye he had his wish Nor was he of this mind onely upon some sudden pang or some extaticall passion or upon a sullen and discontented fi● being rather weary of life then desirous of Death or by reason of the hard pressure of some present affliction as Jonah Job and Elias wisht for Death but out of a more deliberate choyce a sincere affection to Christ and a pious and earnest desire of a fuller enjoyment of him and out of strong and invincible apprehensions of the blessednes of a Future state after Death And if you ask by what meanes and degrees he attained and consequently we may attaine to this willingnes the context will give you the grounds of his choyce and will teach us how we may arrive at the same pitch 1. He had a strong apprehension and perswasion of the great Happines of the life to come compared with the condition of this Mortal Life The vast difference of which two states he setts forth by sundry metaphors v. 1. the Body is called an Earthly House a Mud-wall easily crusht by a sudden casualty or battered with the shock of a more lingring disease and though it be let alone from external Violence yet stoopes to Time and Age moulders downe of its owne accord Againe the body is call'd a tent or Tabernacle suddenly clapt up and as easily took downe againe a moveable habitation fit for a sojourners and pilgrims state But our estate hereafter is a building of God an house not made with hands Say then that we are not weary of our Bodies yet we may be weary of the present state and condition of them which is a state of corruption and infirmity not comparable to that of glory and immortality that lyes before us Here we are in continual peril to have our Earthly house dissolved our fraile temporal lives swallowed up of Death But here after this mortal shall have put on immortality and Death shall be swallowed up in victory 2. He had a sure and certaine hope of enjoying a share in that happinesse which by faith he foresaw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We know it we are confident of it we are satisfyed and cheareful under the forethoughts and expectation of it Without this hope how shall any be ever brought to a willingnes to depart when he knows not whither I wonder not to see the Atheist and prophane person shrink and tremble at the approach of Death to leave a certaine and present enjoyment of this Worlds good things upon the proposal of a future blisse which the one believes not that there is any such thing the other cannot upon any comfortable grounds conclude that he shall have any part in it Who can be willing to lanch into an Eternity which he knows not whether it will be of bliss or misery This made the Emperour Adrians Heart ake and his Soul loath to leave its former habitation Animul● nudula blandula c. quae nunc descendis in loca ah sweet naked Soule into what dark uncouth and dismal places art thou now a going But on the contrary a Christians desire of dissolution proceeds from an evidence of his interest in Christ assurance of the remission of Sins and an undoubted title to those exceeding great and pretious promises made to godliness of the good things of this Life and the better which is to come 3. Ground in his being in some measure fitted and prepared for the presence of the Lord. He that hath wrought us to this selfe-same thing is God v. 5. which some understand thus It 's God that hath brought us to this purpose resolution and choyce that we had rather be absent from the Body c. the frame of Spirit is beyond the attainment of nature and proceeds from higher then humane principles Others understand it thus He that hath wrought us fitted and framed us for this State of happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Metaphor

infinite excluded out of no place included in none This is called Gods immensity ubiquity and omni presence which the scripture often asserts Jer 22 23 24. Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afarre off Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I cannot see him saith the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth so Ps 139. 6. c. Whether shall I flye from thy presence If I ascend into Heaven thou art there If I make my Bed in Hell be hold thou art there c. Act. 17. 27. He is not far from any of us c. 2 His providential presence whereby he is in every busines and nothing comes to passe without him This followes from the former For the essence of God being every where and that essence being a pure Act is no where idle but alwayes operative in all Creatures and in all their actions Now thus nothing no person is ever absent from the Lord. All are subject to his eye and government He sees all his Creatures he manageth and over-rules all their wayes and actions 3. There is a Spiritual or gracious presence of God Whereby he is said to be in and with his Church and every faithful Member thereof Hee s sayd to be the God of his People and to dwel in the midst of them Psa 46. 7. The Lord of Hoasts is with us c. So every Child of God hath God graciously present with him in this life and every one of them have him so much the nearer to them as they have more special need of his assisting helping and encouraging presence Job 5. 29. He is with you in six troubles and in seven Matth 28. last I am with you to the end of the World Of all these several sorts of divine presence the Apostle speaks Eph 4. 6. There is one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Above all by his power and Soveraignty through all by his common providence and in all his Children by the presence of his grace and Spirit The life of faith then excludes none of these Divine presences but supposeth them all and every Christian even in this life is in all these respects present with the Lord. But 4ly there is a Celestial or a glorious presence which the Scripture calls a beholding God face to face and seeing him as he is God vouchsafeth to Moses to see his back parts but saith he Exod. 33. 20. no Man can see my face and Live as if be should say this sinfull and fraile State of Mortality is not capable of nor can be admitted to the full and ●mmediate vision of the Divine glory and Excellency While we are in the Body we are absent from the beatificall vision and fruition of him That State of compleat blisse and happiness is reserved for hereafter Toward this the Apostle having not yet attain'd did breath and strive Phil. 3. 12. I follow after if I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ. I reach forward to the things that are before I presse toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Now as to these Glorious attainments of perfect blessedness which the Apostle elsewhere calls seeing God as we are seen and seeing him clearly as he is the best of Men in this State of Mortality are absent from the Lord nay we are not only as yet unpossest of but in a great measure strangers to and unacquainted with that fulness of joy that is in this Glorious presence of God Eye hath not seen nor Eare heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the things which God hath prepared for them that Love him 1 Cor 2. 9. Now are we the Sons of God and it doth not appear what we shall be but we know that when be shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh 3. 2. 1. Then if this be the state of the Godly in this Life to be absent from the Lord what 's the condition of wick●d Men and where shall the ungodly and Sinners appear they are at a much greater distance from God said to be without God in the World Strangers and Enemies to him by evill workes of whom the Scripture hath pronounc't Ps 73. 27. Lo all they that are far from thee shall perish thou wilt destroy all those that go a Whoring from thee They say to the Almighty Depart from us Job 21. 14. and he to them depart from me Out of the presence of his grace here and hereafter shall be punisht with everlasting perdition from his presence and glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 9. 2. See what little reason good Men have to be fond of this State of mortality wherein they are absent from the Lord. It 's true Life and Death are in the power of the Lord and both of them are to be thankfully accepted at his Hands and meekly submitted to his pleasure Man may not quitt his centinell till he be orderly discharged he may not break out of Life though he account it a prison but must expect a legall delivery Yet hath no reason to be fond of his imprisonment or be unwilling to be delivered While hee 's in this Life hee 's present with the Body hee 's absent from the Lord utraque justa mora est neither consideration gives ground of 100 passionate a Love of this Life or an immoderate desire of a long abode therein Hee 's at home in the Body and what is the Body but a lump of refined Clay a case not valuable were it not for the jewell that is therein It is of the Earth Earthly a Body of the same Mold and Metall with those of the Beasts that perish a fraile and weak carcase subject to a thousand casualties and infirmities and which is worst of all inseperably link't to a Body of Sin and Death which made the Apostle cry our wretched man that I am who shall deliver me c. Rom 7. 24. Againe as hee 's present with the Body so hee 's absent from the Lord. He sees not the face of his Redeemer he see 's not God save as in a Glass darkly In the state of Mortality we are absent from our Head from our Husband from our Masters nay from our Fathers House from our Life our Happiness and that fulness of joy that remains for us in his Celestial presence This makes holy and Heavenly Soules cry with David Ps 42. 1 2. As the Hart panteth c. my Soul thirsteth for God for the Living God when shall I come and appear before God and conclude with St. Paul I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is farre better Phil. 1. 23. 3. Proposition To be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord. I do not meane that all men so soone as they are Dead are in a State of Happiness and Bliss no